Reply by joeyinsouthaustin

Something just dawned on me. On raised panel expansion doesn’t matter if the panel rise starts to soon. If you didn’t leave enough “flat” before what ever profile you used, it will bind in the mortise and push to door apart. Often times it will crack at this point, but oak could be strong enough to break the joint first. Pics of the failure would be helpful, but this would explain it. 1/8” should be plenty for expansion…. unless it is not actually 1/8” because it is binding on the panel profile, front or back.